Paying homage to Hoboken hero: roast beef and 'mutz,' with gravy

HOBOKEN – A food critic with The Village Voice has come to Hoboken to stoke an old rivalry and try to determine who makes the more delicious roast beef hero, Fiore's or Vito's.

Restaurant journalist Robert Sietsema has been in Hoboken sampling one of the “stunning achievements of Italian-American,” at Fiore's House of Quality, 414 Adams St. and Vito's Italian Deli at 806 Washington St. -- two delis that have established a reputation and rivalry for producing the sandwiches.

In today's story, Hoboken's Roast Beef Battle, Sietsema describes the roast beef sandwich as being topped with freshly made mozzarella with brown gravy “poured extravagantly over every interior surface before the thing is snapped shut. Gravy, cheese, and meat ooze out the ends.”

While “Fiore's squirts the gravy a little more judiciously, and the roast beef is rarer” Vito's “uses roast beef done almost to medium, and...the gravy is ladled on with a bit more enthusiasm, making the thing nearly impossible to eat,” he concludes.